The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1887-05-15
ALL SUpERSTlFlOyS
HELP TO PERPE UATE FANATI-
CISM, AND ARE y
luxurious to Reason. to Religion, 10
Morality and Foster and Encour.
age Every Bad Pass On.

dWeTtCuH ITuettb' Every super
stition is Injurious to morality, indi-
rectly as said already, because it is
the parent Of fanaticism, which re-
spects no moral law; and directly be-
cause history informs us that there
exists hardly any immortality which
superstition at one time or another
did not urge upon its benighted fol-
lowers. Begin with the human VIC
tins sacrificed to imaginary demons,
the children burnt in fire to Moloch
by their own parents, the cruel and
suicidal infections upon supposed
sinners in order to appease the gods,
the deadening or Staying the flesh to
save the soul from a supposed hell,
the utter debasement of woman in
so called religious rites, too shame
less and revolving to be described,
the RIGHTEOUSNESS, sensuality and
debauchery of the gods, and the
demons as reported in the various
mythologies and demonologies, and
come down to the Fehmgericht as
that secret criminal Westphalian
court is called, which Charlemagne
established among the Saxons, to try
secretly, condemn and execute
Saxon heathens who refused to be
Christians, which became the pattern
to the inquisition of later date.
Then run over the list of immorali-
ties which superstition suggested and
urged in Christendom and the lands
OF Islam, not to mention barbarous
heathens-we do not wish to specify,
and we think no more evidence is re-
quired in support Of our proposition,
that superstition is injurious to NOR
ais; in many cases it is ruinous.
Every superstition is Injurious to
genuine religion. He who breads
the power of the evil one and his in
fernal host, called Shedim, Mazzi-
kim, Ruchoth, Raoth, Lilith, I'M
clean spirits, evil spirits, does not
fear God, and recognizes Him not as
the Almighty, the All good and ALI
wise; hence he believes in an mag
mary deity, who exists not in reality.
Whoever believes in witchcraft or
necromancy believes in the existence
of power aside of God and not uu-
der His control; hence his God is
not omnipotent; nor is he all-wise if
any stupid ghost can betray or frus-
trate his designs and intentions; nor
is he all-good if he brought forth the
all bad one and tolerates his mali
cious tricks. If true religion is
beneficial to man and superstition is
nugatory to it, then superstition ex-
ercises an injurious influence on him
add ought to be counteracted. If the
devil and ghost stories in the Gospel,
the Babylonian Talmud, the Zohar
and such other books were
originally intended to be under
stood literally, then it must be
admitted that their authors had i'm
perfect notions of the true God, and
impose on their readers supersti-
tions nugatory to true religion. The
same is the case with all other kinds
of superstitions. If one, for instance.
believes that one of the thirteen
happening to meet around one table
must die, he certainly has imperfect
notions of Gods justice. All per-
sons, Jews or Gentiles, who believe
in the existence of powers outside of
God, are Pagans. They worship
other Gods without calling them so
their religion, whether based upon
Bible, Talmud, Gospel, Koran, Zohar
or any other book, is certainly de-
fective, and must ultimately lead to
fanaticism and immortality, which
brought more misery upon mankind
than did all known epidemics.
Every intelligent man knows the
existence of this evil, although not
every one possesses the moral cour-
age to emaucipate himself from what
he knews to be a superstition, and
few indeed, very few, have the moral
and Intellectual tortitude to expose
(boldly, veraeiOusly aud publicly
the worlds follies and corruptions;
and the fewest among this latter class
dare or can do it without running
the risk of being ostracised, perse-
cuted, ridiculed or buried under the
scorn and malice of demented multi
tudes, or the mountains of power
accumulated by princes and priests,
whose existence depends upon the
mental debility of the largest multi
tude. One can easily convince him
self Of this by the outcries of horror
and the outbursts of fanaticism
which follow every idea of reform
which is romulgated and how honest
and reasoning men get frightened and
intipidated by those eruptions.
And yet it ought to be done for the
benefit of humanity; in the name of
God it must be done from time to
time, at least, to prevent man from
sinking lower into the mire of super.
stition. One can not accomplish it,
many can; let mauy try TO do it, and
they will succeed, in part, at least.
Let us try.